Teaching in the 21st century has provided many challenges for a significant amount of educators. However, I personally find it quite fun! Yes, the mundane paperwork and the silly politics can be somewhat of a drag, but the vast and diverse network of tools and resources that are available to teachers certainly makes up for those annoying aspects of teaching. For example, at the end of last week I was pretty checked out at the end of the day, like any other elementary educator, and as we were waiting for busses I put on the science YouTube channel Varitasium. The students were absolutely memorized by hydrodynamic levitation, and they vanished away from my desk allowing me to gain back a slight ounce of sanity. As much as I really do enjoy all of the little Einsteins in my room, sometimes it is nice to get a break from questions! My point is that with all of the technology we have available to us it is very easy to really gain students’ engagement in instructional material, especially while using technology. With that being said, have you taken a step back lately and asked why? Why are these students so engaged in basically everything surrounding technology? Now don’t get me wrong, I am surely engaged by the same pieces of technology, but the difference is I would be just as engaged by reading a study or article explaining hydrodynamic levitation. I recently viewed a couple videos surrounding the understanding of this 21st century technology revolution as we know it. The videos, both with a similar title and from YouTube, are Social Media Revolution 2011 by Erik Qualman and Networked Student by Wendy Drexler.
Social Media Revolution 2011 was a very fast paced video with tons of facts being thrown at you surrounding, as the title suggests, this high demand of social media use within our current society. Yes the video is from 2011, but the facts that are stated throughout the video are still absolutely relevant. One of the first facts the video mentions is how Facebook has more weekly traffic than one of our main, if not the main, search engines Google. Does this mean that individuals are using Facebook as a search engine in itself to obtain all sorts of information? I can tell you that it certainly seems that way with all of the shared articles that show up on my newsfeed. Actually, this fits a characteristic of the Generation Z (born from 1995-2010) part of society. If you read it on the internet, it must be true. Wrong! This is why, as an educator, I focus a lot on providing my students with the information on how to distinguish between what resources are reliable and which ones are not. Another fact that I found interesting, just for the sole reason that I have noticed it more and more lately, is how one in five couples meet online. Subsequently, one in five couples blame their divorce on Facebook. Even though these facts might not have a correlation, it shows us just how “connected” our society is. Going through the process of choosing or in this case losing a partner, which just for the reminder is a significant life decision, is surrounded by social media!
If the last facts don’t prove to you that we are a little too connected as a society, maybe this next one will. In his video, Qualman (2011) also shares the fact that social gamers spend around six billion in VIRTUAL goods, whereas individuals that visit the movie theater spend around 2.5 billion on real goods. That is pretty intriguing to think about, is it not? Where you might feel that I am totally against the use of social media, I promise you I am not. I honestly just find the fact that social media is consuming the majority of our society to be an aspect that shouldn’t be ignored, especially when considering the education of our youth. As Qualman fostered some intriguing thoughts on just how connected we are as a society, Drexler explains the educational theory known as connectivism in her video. You know connectivism must be a newer word when your word processor doesn’t even recognize it!
Connectivism, as stated in Drexler’s (2008) Networked Student video, “Is the theory that learning occurs as part of a social network of many different connections and ties.” The idea that a student can go through school building his/her social media profiles and come out an eager professional ready to successfully tackle the workforce. As I watched this video I had mixed feelings about the practices this theory suggested. I felt that it has a lot to offer both theoretically and practically, however the idea of what that means for educators is somewhat uncanny. Drexler focuses the whole video around a student having to comprehend a specific topic and the practices a connectivism approach would take for that student to be successful in that comprehension. Starting off with reading, reflecting, and construction of their own blogs students are able gain others’ insight, foster an opinion, and then share their insight and opinion as a culminating point. The researching of the topic allows students to sift through, what seems like a never ending data base, the World Wide Web as to what is reliable information and what is not. Having students be able to even understand, especially at the elementary and middle school level, the concept that not everything they read on the internet is true is difficult to begin with. However, once that aspect is understood there are many benefits to students keeping a blog.
I was most impressed with Drexler’s video when she discusses the social and emotional aspect of blogging. Initially I thought that having students connected all the time working through a computing device would limit their ability to have good social and emotional intelligence. However, through social media, such as blogging, students are able to practice their collaboration skills through professional and respectful communicating. Now, if that collaboration is not guided by an educator, you have a high chance that professional and respectful communicating would not occur, especially after the first disagreement. Through connectivism the purpose of an educator is just that, to help guide students safely and efficiently through their learning on the vast web. Specifically, to help their students build a network, take advantage of the learning opportunities, offer guidance when stuck, info reliability, and how to communicate properly and ask respectfully from experts.
Connectivism actually seems very inquiry based, and focuses a lot on getting students college and career ready. This approach is very rational in the sense that students will be working in a tech heavy world! I personally find a lot of value in what connectivism has to offer a classroom, as I do try to have as much inquiry based work that I can. I also believe that fostering students’ college and career skills is one of the most beneficial aspects that can be taken away from a school year. Although theoretically and practically using social media as the foundation to a students’ education rationally seems like a quality approach to educating our students, we must not forget just how important the role of an educator is academically, socially, and emotionally.
Now more than ever students need our guidance, expertise, and experience that we as educators have to offer. However, the traditional ways of educating are somewhat in the past. As educators we need to do our job and as they say “keep up with the times.” The pedagogical skills and understandings that were once mainstream are evolving. Professional development and the correct trainings are important not only for the success of our students but for the success of us (educators) as well. I believe that providing our students with college and career readiness in all aspects is our main goal. Our students will be working in an even more technology driven and socially connected world that we currently are. Thus, it is important that we provide them with the appropriate skills they need to be successful in their journey. For most of us that means that we need to first take the correct steps in gaining such skills for ourselves. The nice thing is, we have the knowledge of educating and a vast amount of resources to get us there!
Happy teaching!
